| Speed | 1.77 MHz |
| Memory | 4 KB |
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Flash is required to use this audio.
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| Release Date: |
8/1/1977 |
| Manufacturer: |
Tandy/Radio Shack
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Donated By:
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Jim Thomson |
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This was Radio Shack’s first personal computer, designed in the
late 1970’s when not much else was available in ‘assembled’ form.
It shipped with either 4 KB or 16 KB of RAM and the Level 1 BASIC
was very limited, allowing only 26 number variables, 2 string
variables and one array variable. The monitor that came with it
was actually an RCA Black and White television with the TV guts
removed. You could expand the RAM on the unit and interface
cassette drives, disk drives and a serial port. The flaky connections
on the expansion boards and serial ports however, led to the
eventual nickname ‘Trash 80’.
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User Comments |
Panzer -Volnteer- on Monday, May 24, 2010
It was my grandfather's first computer, my dad's first computer, I don't remember my first computer, but I wouldn't be surprised of ot was this!!
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Manny on Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Remember,,,this was my first computer, I quickly learned how to use an RS232 interface with an acoustic modem. For those of you that have no clue what that is you placed the handset into two rubber cups and your computer actually talked to the modem on the other end. Slow but loyal I was able to term into the FIU mainframe with this thing for over two years. Mine ended up in a model airplane kit factory in Miami.
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Bob Bauer on Saturday, February 20, 2010
I owned one of these.
It was unbelievably slow. Even the very small Basic programs took forever to load from the cassette tape drive. Overlays were possible but they had to be sequential. The built-in programming language was limited but at least it was always available.
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Bob Malins on Sunday, September 27, 2009
I remember the 'Trash 80' well. I was teaching Data Processing at a local high school at the time. Prior to the arrival of the TRS-80 we had used optical cards that had to be sent by bus or driven personally to the University of Western Ontario (Althouse College) to process our programs written in ICL. With about a one week turnaround time you can imagine the frustration when a 'syntax error in line 40' was the result of your one week wait. We had purchased a Timex Sinclair but it was never set up as a workstation in the classroom as was the TRS-80. The TRS-80 became our first 'in-class' computer. The local Radio Shack outlet (in the Brantford Mall at the time) had very generously provided a unit for us to borrow and use for a full semester and we made application for funding to purchase a single unit for the school for the following school year. I expected that the unit would be purchased from the store that had provided us with the loaner. Aware of the boards tendering policy I asked if I could identify a vendor if all tenders were the same and I was assured that all Radio Shack outlets would tender the same purchase price. I was assured that this would not be a problem and naturally indicated my preference that the local Radio Shack store would receive the order. I remember checking with the local store several times over the summer but each time the local store owner had received no word from the board. Going into the school in August as the new school year approached I was surprised by finding a TRS-80 sitting on one of the desks in one of the classrooms. Apparently all tenders were not the same and the Radio Shack outlet in Cambridge had undercut the Brantford outlet by $50 and thus received the order. Back then long distance charges were considerably more expensive than today and we had many questions about the use of our new TRS-80. I'm sure the $50 saving through the tendering process was used up many times over in long distance charges to our supplier in Cambridge. My best memory has to be the use of the audio cassette tapes that came with the unit to instruct the user. The same tape recorder that played the instructional tapes also saved the computer data. What year was that? Am I that old?
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Phil Clayton on Sunday, May 10, 2009
This was my first computer ever. I purchased it in 1976, and had to finance the computer and monitor that cost me $599.00
This was a screaming fast CPU at 1.78Mhz, and 4KB RAM , Yes thats right 4,000 bytes memory. Enough to write about 20 lines of BASIC code before it ran out of memory. Heck my digital watch has more memory then it had. But I must say it was an amazing computer for its day, and I learned to write code, and changed careers as a Night Club Musician to owning my own computer business. That computer Changed my life..
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 "TRS-80 Model I")